After more than 20 years of tutoring and mentoring juveniles in the D.C. court system, Georgetown’s After School Kids program is on hiatus this fall. The program’s five-year contract with the D.C. Superior Court ran out in May and has yet to be renewed, forcing ASK to cancel its programs indefinitely due to a lack of funds.
The ASK program serves an average of 55 to 75 youths a semester, and around 30 every summer. Georgetown volunteers and work-study students serve as ASK’s tutors and mentors, teaching youths with juvenile records academic, social, and life skills.
“It’s such a great program,” ASK tutor Mary Kate DeLong (NHS ’10) said. “And as much as it’s a loss for the kids in D.C., it’s a loss for Georgetown students at least as much, if not more so. Personally, ASK is the most meaningful thing I’ve participated in at Georgetown.”
The D.C. Superior Court, which controls ASK’s funding, has placed the program in “the competitive range” to receive a contract, according to Center of Social Justice executive director, Kathleen Maas Weigert, who met with court officials yesterday. ASK has until September 8 to submit its proposal. Whether or not significant changes to the program are being considered is privileged information, Weigert said, and it is currently uncertain if or when the ASK program will become functional once again.
“It’s frustrating to have the process out of our hands,” Weigert said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen to the adjudicated youths that the program serves. It’s also hard on the Georgetown students that love this program and expected to be hired for their work-study. My hope is that the program will run again this spring, but there’s no guarantee.”
According to ASK site coordinator Maura Garven (COL ‘09), ASK will likely require eight weeks after receiving a contract to hire a new program director and become fully operational. Should the program reopen in the spring, Garven is also concerned that ASK’s absence from fall events like the SAC fair will prevent incoming freshman from knowing about the program.
Many Georgetown students who were previously involved with ASK do not intend to wait until the program reopens to get involved.
“Even though we don’t have work-study with ASK this fall, a lot of us are rallying around the program anyway,” Garven said. “I plan on dedicating whatever I can do as a student to the program. ASK is something that defined Georgetown for me.”
